Superstar Guest Eric "BOOYA E" Serrano, https://decoralightsstore.com/

I know, I'm nuts. Hello everyone! All right, let me just say today is Wednesday— no, today's Tuesday, February 23rd, and you are actually— we're live, Eric and I are live, but you, if you're listening now or for replay, you're actually going to be listening to a business conversation. Eric and I have not met. It's our first time meeting, and we're talking about something that I love, and Eric's got a cool product he's going to show us, and we're also going to talk about how it could fit into an industry that I love, the promotional products industry. And Eric, just to be clear, I work for Halo Branded Solutions, the second largest supplier in the industry. But really the number one that has the boots on the ground. So we have people, so, and you're in South Florida, so we have Halo representatives all over that are creative and educated and experienced and understand the industry. So I wanna introduce everyone to our guest, Eric Buiyae. He's gonna tell us Serrano, and look at the website. If you can, if you could pull up the website too, we'd like for you to do that. Decoralightstore.com. So hi Eric, how are you?

I'm good, how are we doing today?

I am good. I'm in the Daytona Beach area.

You, uh, Miami? I'm down in Miami.

I love it, I love it. All right, so Booyah E, what is that?

Um, that's a nickname that I got about 11 years ago. Um, we had actually started doing— my wife's in the event business, she's been in the event business since we moved down to Miami. Uh, so we had actually started a line of t-shirts geared towards kids' birthday parties that were giving them out as favors. And the name of the company was called Booyah Graphics. So when I started promoting it on Facebook, I would always end it with Booyah, Booyah, Booyah. And all of a sudden the nickname just started sticking. So people just started calling me Booyah E. So I'm like, ah, I'll run with it. So I stick with it. And you know, if you see me on Facebook, 95% of the time when I finish any of my posts, there's a Booyah in capital letters on there. So the nickname stuck with me.

I love it. So your wife, so actually when I lived in South Florida, I was, I sell to the event industry, so promotional products are used often, and I was on the board of MPI South Florida, Meeting Professionals International South Florida, and served for many years with some amazing people that I'm still friends with. What was your wife doing in the industry? Is she still in the event industry?

Well, right now, and it's actually funny, it leads into Decora Lights. She, in the event industry, she actually designed and manufactured custom invitations for events.

I love it.

So when we first moved down, the name of the company is Paper Invitation Studio. When we first moved down, we actually had a retail store in the other falls area thinking that we'd be doing weddings, that would be our prime thing. We didn't realize that we were surrounded by 4 or 5 of the largest temples in South Florida. And lo and behold, as she started to build a name for herself, the bar and bat mitzvah crowd became her bread and butter. And I mean, what's great about it is every event is unique, every theme is unique, and what really— what she did was she catered to that, and every single invitation was unique to the child and to the event. Everything was custom designed, nothing out of the books. I mean, she designed and created everything in-house.

Wow.

So it's that, and you know, it was a lot of fun seeing, you know, the faces of these kids getting their invitations as they were mailed out and the responses that people were we're giving them in regards to the look and the design. And that's where she built her business. A lot of referrals came from that, as you know, in the promotions industry as well. A lot of your business does come from referrals. You do right by one person, it does kind of build and go on.

And there's some great groups out there for the bar and bat mitzvah. I'm online with a lot of them. So, so is she doing that now still, or—

Um, right now due to COVID, a lot of the events were put on hold. Some of the families are doing more Zoom parties, which is the new thing to do. So she's done a lot of digital invites and anything that they wanted to send out to the family, she's doing stuff like that. So it's not as rampant and busy as it was before COVID but we're keeping our fingers crossed that the industry is definitely gonna come back soon enough.

It will. And may I ask her name?

Diana. I'm sorry, Diana. Diana Serrano, that's her name.

Diana Serrano, beautiful name. Okay, I hope to meet you, Diana, someday because I love what you do. And being Jewish, I love bar and bat mitzvah.

I remember mine. The most fun. We had a chance to be invited to a couple of them and just amazing events, how things aligned up. I mean, for me, it's possibly more fun than going to a wedding.

Oh, okay. I love that. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Always. Because I just love watching the kids and I love the candlelight. But okay, so now, so tell me about your new business now. How long have you been in business? I want to hear everything right from the beginning.

Okay, as I mentioned, my wife being in the event business, COVID kind of took the hit on us, so we wanted to come up with something different. Thankfully, I'm still employed, and my father-in-law, who is retired— we all used to work together back in the day, we owned a sign company together up in New York— comes to the house and he's showing us these little LED lights with inserts inside. I'm like, ah, you know, I'm not really gonna put my arm around that, I don't have time for that. And then he's putting all these inserts in and they're of cool characters and cool designs. And I'm like, hmm, that's interesting. So we actually put together a website and we started selling some of these products on different platforms like Etsy and eBay. This started around September of last year, so right before the holiday season. And you know what, knock on wood, it took off with a flash and a lot of orders started coming in. With the holiday season right around the corner, it really started to pick up. And as we were making our sales and doing, you know, what we had in-house and then doing custom design ideas, I started sitting down thinking, because I've been in sales for 20 years, what can we do that's different? What can we do that other people don't really see? And for me, I started thinking corporate. You know, these would be great gifts for salespeople to give to their clients with their corporate logo on it, with their name on it. Things of that nature. And I started reaching out to different companies, actually got some good contacts in the gaming industry where a lot of these guys wanted to put together their logos and give them out to, to people on their team and their friends. And I just started really thinking this is a good opportunity to really open up the door to corporate, especially when they start doing more events and want to really give out giveaways and really things that can brand themselves. So these 3D lights really kind of popped into our heads, and I've been lucky enough to do a couple of, uh, of corporate accounts with the, our, with the Coral Lights. Very excited.

So I want to see the lights because I want to try to understand, is the light, is it a nightlife, is it a fun light to have?

So this is exactly what it looks like. Hopefully you can get a better view of me. Right there we go. So basically what this is, it is a base that comes with remote control and it also has a USB plug. And as you can tell, it changes different colors. So we can change— this is acrylic. Yes, there we go. Yeah, this is actually one of my clients, StreamIQ. They are a gaming, a gaming company.

Is, is the— so can I see the whole thing? Is that the top of it or is that—

this is the top and then here is the base. Uh, it does come with a remote. Unfortunately, I left the remote in my office, um, but it comes with remote control that allows you to change colors 16 different colors, and it's battery operated and also comes with a USB plug that can be plugged into a wall, plugged into a computer, and it's just— it's really taken off. And then we can— you just take out the insert, and then I have another custom insert that we did for, uh, actually from my dad. And this is another insert that we did, so we can see how big as we can get, get as well. So with the designs are limitless. If you have a logo, if you have a saying you want to put on there, we can definitely do that.

Anyone, Brian, this is interesting. So first of all, the acrylic is awesome and it's great to work with. There was a company that was doing this and they're no longer in business, which is interesting. So there's a need for this like niche market. So in the promotional products industry, and I absolutely think because when I look at that, besides saying that it could be a call to action, it could just light up a showroom. It's fun. You know, I, gotten lights for my daughter. Teens love those. But for corporate, it makes a great award. And actually, we did an event one time, my friend Debbie and I, with this company that was doing the lights, and we had all the high tops, and then we put them all in the center of the high tops, and we were able to keep the lights low. And the low— oh my gosh, I mean, talk about a wow. Amazing. But I'm not sure if our industry knows that you exist, so What are your plans for going— like, so you're selling corporate, which you can continue doing, or you can look at going into the promotional products industry and having distributors like myself actually represent your product. So it's kind of giving you a whole team of salespeople compared to your knocking on doors. So what, what do you—

that's definitely what I'm looking to do, speaking of promotion. I've actually spoken to a couple, uh, down here in Miami that have gotten a lot of interest in learning more about it. And obviously their question is, well, what's the minimum order? Here's the deal. You want 1, we'll do 1. You want 20, we'll do 20. It's up to the need of you and also your client as well. You don't have to put any of these things in stock. We're not telling people you have to order 200 of these things for us to do business. It's when you need them. Very simple and very easy.

So I love that. So people ask, I always say, look, if I could do half of one, it would be pretty much a miracle. So the minimum is one. And that makes sense with acrylic, because acrylic, the way it's cut— acrylic is usually USA-made. So, but you've got the light part of it. So is this 100% what, USA-made, or parts of it USA-made?

Um, the acrylic part is USA-made. Um, and so that, you know, all the designs, all the cutting, all the engraving, we do in-house. So that is not outsourced. We do all of that in-house. The bases are bought internationally, which, you know, but we've gotten a great, great deal on them, and we test every single base before they go out. We even will take a picture of the base complete to send it to our customers so they can take a look at it illuminated before we even go into the manufacturing process as well. We do send mock-ups.

I mean, it makes absolute sense. So it's, you know, that you have the big part of it, the base is, is, you USA made, so that's fine. I always really feel like I ask the question, I feel like someone's like, oh, but it's okay if it's not, and it makes sense because the concept is what can be done at the best price. So you start this business, I'm trying, so now I love the promotional product side of it and I would love to mentor you. I am a SCORE certified mentor, so I love business, I love promotional products, I have 35 years in the industry, and through our PPAI, the Promotional Products Association International, I actually, even though I'm 58 years young, I'm almost 59. I have my designation lifetime as an MAS, a Master of Advertising Specialties. I love everything except I'm not great about knocking on doors. I just want people to come to me. Like, the worst, that's the worst. That's the other thing. But with that aside, I also love SCORE, and so I want to just throw a little SCORE, a couple SCORE questions in here because I think this is so interesting. So when you decide to go into business, What were the risks that you were looking at?

Honestly, when we first started, the risk was very low. You know, we didn't buy a high quantity of the bases. You know, we had invested already in the machinery to do the cutting and the scoring of the plastic, which we were going to do for basically my wife's business for the invitation business to doing things different and fancy and also doing gifted items as well. So when this kind of fell into the lap, we did a small investment in the bases and just put it online and put it through e-commerce and did some small advertising here and there. I love sales. So if you're looking at a guy who you want somebody to knock on doors, I'm that annoying guy that knocks on the doors. So it works out great. So I just started reaching out to my contacts and showing them pictures and videos, and they loved it. And but it was one of those things where it started off as a gift item for the holidays. And having been in sales for so many years, I know that, you know, holiday season we're busy, and then come the beginning of the year it's a little slow. I was okay with that because I wanted to give us the time as a team, myself, my father-in-law, and my wife, to really put this thing together and open up the doors so that it's not just a one avenue or one string pony. We're looking at, we want to go different avenues on this thing. So having our e-commerce, um, retail side, having the corporate side, and then also now looking into the promotional product side as well.

I love it. So what would you say, another score question, what would you say your competitive advantage is?

Um, first and foremost, there's somebody to talk to. A lot of times when people are ordering things online, you know, you don't know who you're talking to on the other side. We make sure that when we're talking to people, they understand I'm not a bot, I'm not, you know, a customer service rep that's only working from 8 to 4, and after 4 o'clock you can't get— we're answering emails 1, 2 o'clock in the morning. That's just our mindset. As entrepreneurs and, and business people. So that's the number one thing that I feel people are going to get is they're going to have someone to talk to. If they have a custom design, we'll work with them in regards to how to customize, how to send us the artwork. Nothing gets done until they see, as I said, a mock-up of what the design is going to look like. We test everything, we'll take a picture of it before we send it out so they can see what it looks like. A lot of times we're told, no, no, no, no, no, I saw the mock-up, I don't want to see a picture, I want to be surprised. And that's when part of me is like, well, I like that, but the other side of me is like, you gotta see it. I just, I need you to see it. I mean, the wow factor will be there when you open it up and you play with it, but you gotta see it now. So I think that's the one thing that, you know, puts us at a different level is the fact that we're here to talk and we're here to advise and we're here to educate on how this product can be either set up as a gift, set up as a corporate thing, set up for an event, how this product is going to really be that wow factor for them.

I love that. I can't imagine someone in the corporate world would say, oh, surprise me. But I could understand if I was just an individual and I felt comfortable with the design that I would say, oh, okay, you know, just, just run with it. I'm so anxious to get it. I have a question for you. This is kind of a unique question because I'm, I'm just, uh, well, I just finished my training to facilitate the Kauffman Foundation FastTrack program. And one of the questions— the presentation I had to make today in the training was to ask the question about what your personal— what is your personal vision? So not professionally, but your personal vision when you got into business.

And I'm curious what that answer would be for you in regards to this particular business or business in general.

Kind of like it would be for this business, but business in general too. Like, you open up, you start, you're thinking, okay, you're gonna start a business, you're— you've got the idea, you're assessing all your risks, you're looking professionally. But personally, so personally, what are some of your goals that you have?

Honestly, it comes down to, you know, I'm a father of two boys. I have a 16-year-old, soon-to-be 17-year-old, and a 13-year-old. You know, they've seen mom and dad in business since the day they were born. They saw the struggle that we went through with COVID and I will say, on a personal side, the one thing that I— and I've been telling this to people a lot— is learning to adapt. Things aren't as easy as they used to be. Things will never be as easy as they used to be. So I think the one thing that I've learned, and personally that I'm trying to build on and be better at and show my, my boys, and my wife's doing the same thing as well, is learning to adapt to the changes and not saying, well, I can't do anything now because of X, Y, and Z. There's got to be a road, there's got to be a way to, to find that next business, find that next product, find that next wow factor, and just be able to sit back Breathe in, breathe out, and take that next step forward.

So I love that answer. Thank you so much. Now, okay, so now if we had a piece of paper— I got a piece of paper right here. I just want to have a little fun for a second. All right, so who could be your audience? So let's just, let's like, uh, okay, so actually, so this is a great gift because it's a minimum one. Can you imagine the theme of the child's bar mitzvah actually coming to them in lights or a gift?

Yeah.

So it could be bar and bat mitzvahs?

Well, look, honestly, I can even open it up and say anyone in the event industry. We're talking from weddings, bar and bats, any type of birthday parties, anything, any event that they're having. These can be used as table numbers. These can be used, I mean, for— it's limitless. Honestly, I actually challenge people to come and give us a challenge of a design. For a decor light.

Oh, I love that. You know what, because when I think of it, you have your event, you usually— what they— in the beginning they would have flowers or something that was on the table that people could take away. And no matter, you know, as creative as you could be, people want to win that centerpiece. But this is awesome. I mean, everyone— I would be, before I sat down, I would be looking under every seat, every table, pushing people aside so I could get that. So that is awesome. So anyone in the event industry, and then what about, it could be a great service award.

Yes. I am looking to find ways to develop these as awards. Actually, one industry that has really intrigued me and has been questioning and asking a lot is the gaming industry, a lot of the esports. So that's an industry that I'm really looking to target and go after, especially when they have their tournaments is basically turning this decor light into a trophy.

Yes, I love— oh, I've actually been to one of their tournaments just because I happened to be in the same hotel. And they're here in Daytona Beach, right? Esports?

Yes, I mean, there's a lot of them across the country. And with COVID and a lot of adults and kids getting into gaming, they're starting to build up a lot of these clans and teams and, and really starting to become a huge business.

So what about like stock? Like, so if Disney came to you and said, we want to have Mickey and Minnie and lights getting married, is that something you could do? Are you looking to see if you could get the Disney license?

Um, I would love to. Um, you know, I look at it as because we just kind of stumbled into this in September, you know, I want to crawl before I can walk and/or run. So the idea is to really, you know, right now have fun with it. And the fact that I get to talk to so many amazing people that when they see the light, like, oh my goodness, can you do this? Oh my goodness, can you do that? And they'll come with us with ideas, they'll send us their artwork, and we can take that artwork and really turn it into a decor light. Their reactions are amazing. So if there's anyone that has a vision or a design that they want to put into lights, let me know.

What about gift stores? Do you have stock ones, or can they make it look like a stock? Can we, can we do the show and sell right now so we could see what you have?

Yeah, I mean, I wish I had a lot. I mean, we have a tremendous amount in stock, and we really do. Um, once again, what I've been talking to a lot, and I am actually talking to some retail stores, um, in various industries, and a lot of them want to see— obviously they want to know if we have it in stock, which we can do it in stock without a problem. We can have them have their stock, or if they want to sell it online, because a lot of retail stores that have the brick and mortar in their shops are doing a lot of online as well. So what I'm telling them is, listen, we can do that for you. But once again, what the idea is, you don't have to order 1,000 of them and keep them in a warehouse. You know, if you want to have it on your website and an order is placed, and we can drop ship them, and without, you know, we can blank drop ship them without our information on it, we can do that as well. So once again, for us, it's our flexibility is, well, what do you need for us to make you successful, to make you, to help you really build up your business? So it's one of those things, you know, help me to help you, help me to help you.

Got it. So the just-in-demand is great. I really see you're smart. So the first year you're kind of opening it up, and then next year you'll probably be so busy you're probably not going to be able to do a lot of the, uh, you know, the one, one piece, you know, Like, I look at that, I say, oh, if a photographer had an amazing sunset and wanted to create a piece that kind of lit up with the sunset, you could do that, right?

Well, we are working on our next step is taking photography and adapting it to this format. It's just, it's once again where I will say, and this is where, you know, we as a team, we work out fantastic, is my wife is a designer. She is a perfectionist. I'm the sales guy, so I'm the guy that's like, I'll sell us. And she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's slow it down there, chief. All right, let's make sure that I can do this, and it's got to be done right, where we're not those people that say, yeah, yeah, we'll do it, and then just send that. If we're not happy with the final product, we're not gonna— we're not gonna sell it, and we're not gonna give it to anybody. So that's where, you know, I guess it's one of those things that we're— we're as honest as honest can be, and you're gonna get honesty from us. And if we can do it, great. If we can't, we'll be transparent and say right now we can't, but doesn't mean we're not going to. We're just right now we're working on it to make it the best that it can be.

So lights are so popular right now too, and all the kids, right? So my daughter went on Amazon— she's all going to be like, she's 14.675— and she got those like lights that are though like the stick ones.

Yes, my son, both my boys have it, yeah.

And then she messed it up and then we couldn't figure it out and then we got more things to go with it and then I don't even know, she pulled it all down and it's gone now. And but yeah, I see other kids really are creating, actually with COVID they really are creating their rooms to be like an event space, like my daughter has the ivy coming down and she's got some other lights because it just didn't work and a palm tree and all of that. But this is kind of tying right into what people are looking at. There's even companies like Trim Light of South Florida where they, they, they light everything up so you can have them do their homes and a variety of different things. So, so why do you think that lights are so hot right now and in?

Well, I'll tell you, it's funny, we— I stumbled upon this in regards to the gaming industry where we— I did the Coralife for my youngest son in his room, and I mean, he's a big-time gamer. He actually with our help, he built his own PC over the summer, and it had all these LED lights in there. So I was in his room and I was looking up something online in regards to, uh, to gamers, and I just see their rooms with the LED track lights and the way they, they switch on and off. And I'm in his room and I'm looking at this video and I'm like, you know what, there's only one thing missing, and it's one of these lights. So that's when I did my research and I started going into Instagram and and TikTok and looking at all these gamers and just sort of reaching out to them and having a conversation. And all of them love it. They love the LED. I think it just, it gives them a sense of, of being in the game where— because when they're in these video games and they're in these realms and in these worlds, they're in it. And they just let the lights put them into that environment and make it the action and really just put them in it. So I think that's the reason why they're really into the, the LED lights and everything, because it really puts them in that different— I guess at times takes them out of reality, which right now we all want to get out of reality because it's just insane what's been going on. And it puts them in this world of calm and relaxation, because I will not lie to you, when I'm in my son's room and the LED lights are going, it's relaxing. It really is. And it's that, that woosah that really puts you in that relaxing mode.

Because isn't that why— and I've never been, but Caesar has been— Burning Man, right? And everyone will go to these Burning Man, and because they, they love watching things light up. Yeah, I mean, there really is something to it.

You look at, look at, look at fireworks. Everyone loves a good fireworks show. And with these LED lights, especially if you have them where they dim and they go on and off, it's kind of like a fireworks show without the big bang boom.

I love it. So I would love to help you. So what I have done with other suppliers actually is help them to come into the industry, introduce you to the right people, and then just review with you some of the ins and outs of, of how the industry works so that you could decide. Because there's two ways you could go. One is you could find a supplier who would like to take your line on, and they're already a supplier. You don't have to— you're just like an added line to them. Which is great, and the orders funnel through you, or you become your own supplier in the industry and a lot more marketing because there's, you know, you gotta pick which distributors and all of that. But if you want help, I'm happy to help you. How did we connect? Can you remind me?

Um, actually, I saw you did something on Facebook in regards to promotional products, and as I said, you know, doing my research, and I really want— I personally feel that this product that we have can, you know, as I said, I wanted to take it out of the retail side of it. I mean, my wife and father, they handle the retail side. I'm the one that's focused on going after the corporate side. And you had mentioned something about looking for different promotional products, and I'm like, well, I'm kind of sitting on one right here, so why not? And, you know, being the salesperson that I am, I find a way to— I do my research, I reached out to you, Most likely through Instagram, Facebook, I emailed you and I saw that you were doing these interviews and talking to people and educating people about what their business is and helping them out as well. I figured, hey, take a shot, reach out and see what she says.

I love it. I don't, you know, I love doing this, I don't say no, but I also, you know what, I also have this philosophy that I love it when someone reaches out and when we had a showroom in Celebration, if you came to the door and you wanted to sell me something, I always took the time to meet with you and to learn. And some of my favorite clients and customers and friends are those that were selling to me. So I think in life you've gotta be open and see what's out there. So I actually started this Candid Conversation, which now is Adrienne Barker Speaks, but I started it just because I have so many cool friends that I wanted during COVID for people to actually meet my friends. And I started doing it and it became fun and I love it. It's actually really good for when you go to be a speaker or a presenter because you start getting comfortable with this, so it's kind of natural. And then the thing that I do is I really don't do a lot of research because, you know, if I was going to meet you, I wouldn't run in the bathroom and say, who is this guy? So, you know, a lot of it is just really the regular conversations that we have. So I don't actually go through, and there's no rehearsal. We didn't prep any of this. A little quick chitchat for a few minutes before we started, but I absolutely love it. Now, what did I see on your web that was almost like A little cat. What was that, like little animals?

Yes, we have a line called Decora Pets, and I have one right here. This is my friend Owly, and what you do is, uh, you just, you tap and it changes colors.

The only thing better than that would be if a little music for a baby. I mean, who wouldn't want that in there?

Oh my God, this is a great line. Um, once, once again, it's one of those things that we kind of stumbled upon. Um, you know, we're building up momentum now. We We brought it on board with our line right in the middle of the holidays, so it didn't take off as quickly as we expected it to because of everything else that we were selling. But it's one of those lines that we feel it's a great gift item. You know, both my boys have, have one in their rooms. I actually stole that one from my youngest. But it's a great line. What I'm also learning too is that because kids and adults as well love LED lights, we are looking to bring more LED products into our line. So it's not just what you get with the acrylic signs, but we are looking at other avenues and bigger avenues as well that we're working on some prototypes. Because like I said, we're perfectionists in what we do. We were in the sign business. My father-in-law was for many years. I got married into it. So when it came to doing— we did interior signs for the fast food industry. So anytime we designed it and put it together, you know, we made sure that it was perfect and that it was received perfect and people are going to get the best bang for their buck. So, you know, what we're working on right now is all in prototype stages, but we feel in the next couple of months we have the next couple of items that are really going to take off for, like I said, the retail side and also on the, on the consumer side as well, for the corporate side as well.

You know what I love about it too? So I have Pickles. Pickles is my senior dog. Pickles is blind and deaf and he circles and his back legs are giving out. And so I need to make sure that Pickles can see. He's like legally blind. I, you know, he can see, he has to have lights, but LED lights, what I love, and I try to switch out all my lights to LED because they stay cool. So I don't have to worry about them getting hot and having any issues with anything. Right. So that's, that's really one of the best things about it.

You could actually put one of these. Onto Pickle. It is a smaller version, which we actually— these are little tags. This is one of my other corporate clients that were— these, they actually— he actually uses these in his car because he goes to visit a lot of clients at night. So he uses it kind of like a nightlight and to hang over the rearview mirror. But this is another product that we have, which looks like an ornament too. We've actually sold these as Christmas ornaments. It's on my Christmas tree. We gave it out to friends and family as well. But it's another great corporate idea that if people want to give it out as gifts with either their logo or as a salesperson, if I have clients that have logos, this would be a great gift as well. We can personalize it, put a person's name on it. So this is another thing that I'm actually looking to make it a little bit smaller that we can actually sell to people to put on their dogs. Um, this is, I believe this is a 4-inch by 5-inch, uh, maybe a little bit bigger. I'm sure, honestly, I don't have the sizing on me. I should, I should know this by heart, but I don't. I'm selling so many.

How, what size is that, about 3 inches?

Uh, it's a little bit bigger than 3 inches. I think it's about maybe 5, 5 inches by 6.

It's gorgeous. It is absolutely, really shows you. I am in love with your products.

And also this one can be recharged with a USB as well. Wait, so we do have LED with it.

This can be, uh, with a USB, but, but the lighting is an LED light. I didn't know that you could recharge LEDs.

It is an LED light and this is rechargeable.

Yes, I learned something new. Okay, I, I— all right, wow.

And we also have them just with the other batteries as well, so we have different ones that we could, uh I can put together. And the idea, once again, is you have the idea, we'll put it on there.

Oh, I love it, I love it, I love it. I'm so glad that we connected today and that we talked because you really have a bright idea. And I also love the fact that you're, you know, you're beginning your entrepreneurial life and this is great for the children. And it's— yeah, it's— I, I just love it. If you ever need a SCORE mentor, you have your SCORE— you actually have Miami has a fantastic SCORE office, and then right up the road, Broward is really wonderful too. And then of course you've got me and other SCORE mentors throughout. Just, you never know, especially sometimes if you, whatever you need, you know, you could, you could always ask for help.

So listen, I'm one that I do not know it all. I don't claim to know it all. My wife will definitely say he does not know it all, but I'm looking to learn. And this is such an amazing industry. in regards to the promotional side of it. I have a lot of friends that, that have been, that are in it, and I've had conversations. And, you know, what I find great about it is that everybody needs a promotional product, whether it's for an event. I still personally feel it's great for, for giveaways. It's great as a sales guy for branding. You know, you don't— if you want people to remember who you are, your logo should always be in the forefront and be in front of their faces. So I think what you guys do in this industry is fantastic. You know, I'm Hopefully, I'm happy that we're gonna be a part of it. But for me, once again, it's, you know, our challenge is come to us with an idea that you wanna see in the light and we'll put it together and we'll make it work.

I love it, I love it. So all you need is just to be some creative and have an idea and then watch it get executed and then just bright ideas work. So I love it, so I love the name of your business, that's awesome, your website looks great, so you are well on your way. Thank you for your time today. I'm so glad that we connected and then I'm going to connect with you everywhere. Oh, I appreciate it.

And I do. I am sorry if I do talk a lot, but once again, I'm from New York. I'm in sales. You know, I mean, I love talking about this business. I mean, you put me, whether it's one-on-one or you put me in a room with 80 people, 100 people, I'll sit down and I'll talk to anybody and everybody about what we're doing here.

I don't think you talked a lot, but wait, so we're from Connecticut. What do we do in Connecticut? Do we talk? Do we talk a little? I don't. Like, what are we doing?

You actually know, you guys talk a lot, but so you don't have that heavy accent like we do. And Connecticut is very laid back and nice, and New York's all in your face, which even though I've been down in Miami for 17 years, I've mellowed a little bit, but not that much.

I can see it. I love the stuff. My mom was from the Coney Island area of New York. And actually, you know what, you're probably right about that. I, and I know we don't have an accent. I always said that's amazing. We just, and then someone said, say draw, and I'm like, draw? So like, yeah, okay. My husband is from My husband is from Southbridge, Mass., and he has the Boston accent, but I swear his sisters growing up that when I met them, they had the westerly Rhode Island accent. And I'm like, you guys are from the same house, so that's kind of weird. But nobody hears their own accent, right? So I love that. But thank you so much for your time. This— I really, I really look forward to getting to know you, and, and, and just hopefully I could be— I will be selling your products too. So we have to get your information into Halo, and they vet their suppliers, but I could take care of doing that for you. And, and so, and then you probably want to do that with a lot of the larger distributors out there where you become an approved vendor. That's really the best way to do it, actually, one step of it. So, all right, I look forward to talking to you again. Thank you. And also, how so people can reach you? I just want to make sure, because obviously when I do this with YouTube, I'll have all of your information, but how do you like people to connect with you? Call you? Email you?

I'm not shy, you can call me, you can email me, it's fine. I mean, do you want me to give the information right now?

Yeah, I would do that. Where can you find you? Do you have a Facebook page?

Yes, it's Decora Lights Store on Facebook. You can also find us on Instagram at Decora Lights Store as well. And my email address is very easy, it's bouya.e.decoralights. @gmail.com.

All right, beautiful. Why Gmail? Why not have your Decora Lights email address, the extension? I'm sorry, why not have just the— because you have the website, why not have the email that goes with the website?

Well, we do have— we have a— it's decoralightstore@gmail.com. Uh, that's the one that, that goes more to, to my wife, but the bouya one, because like I said, I'm in sales. I'm all about that connection.

But why not have, why not have like a, you know, like I have Adrian@promoproducts.guru.

Oh, like info@thecoralex. We're actually working on it. Like I said, when we got into this, we had a game plan of how to set everything up and then the business just started taking off. So a lot of things got kind of pushed to the back burner. So that's, we have a long list of things to do. That's on the list of one of those things to do.

Is that expensive? I think I pay $4.99 a month just to have it, but I think it's It does make sense because Gmail addresses really tend to get more spammed out, so you just— that's why you're going to be too big for a Gmail address. So thank you so much, I'll follow you on all your social media and very excited. Tell your wife I said hello, we probably know a lot of the same people in the Miami area. And then next is your PR campaign too, we got to get you a good PR campaign. So that you can get out and continue doing the press. And because you're right, you want to just— as many people as you could show and share, that's going to be— that's going to take you to the top.

So thank you so much for the time to sit down and talk to me and go over everything and introduce people to, uh, to Decora Lights. And you know, we're here, and I like you.

I just thought it's nice. So I look forward to— my parents are buried in Hollywood, Florida, actually, so we have to go down and, uh, and I want to see them. And then I mean, it sounds weird to say, but still, just connect with them. And then, and then we have a lot of friends out there, so I look forward to— I'm going to contact you and ask if I can come see your operation.

Definitely sounds like a plan.

All right, have a great rest of the day. Thank you. Thank you everyone for watching. Connect. Bye-bye.